Steven John "Steve" Wilkos (/ˈwɪlkoʊs/; born March 9, 1964) is an American television personality, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a former law enforcement officer with the Chicago Police Department. He has been hosting The Steve Wilkos Show since 2007, and was director of security on The Jerry Springer Show from 1994 to 2007. He had previously substituted for Springer as host on several occasions before being given his own talk show.
Wilkos was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jeanette (née Pelikan), a beauty school instructor, and Stanley Wilkos, a former police officer who was in the Korean War as an army paratrooper. He has a brother and two sisters, the third of four children. Wilkos grew up poor and graduated from Lane Technical High School in 1982.
In October 1982, Wilkos joined the United States Marine Corps, serving in South Korea, Japan, Illinois, Virginia, and South Carolina before being discharged in March 1989.